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GENESIS 19:1-38 - COMPROMISE - Part 3
- [Read part one here; part two here]
Believe it or not, the scene gets even crazier now, picking it up in Vs. 9-11 - “Get out of our way,’ they replied. ‘This fellow came here as a foreigner, (Speaking of Lot) and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.’
But the men inside (the angels) reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.”
This blows my mind! Other versions say they “wore themselves out groping for the door." Here are these sex crazed men who are struck blind and confused and their still trying to get in the door!!
12-13 - “The two men said to Lot, ‘Do you have anyone else here - son-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it.’”
Now Lot’s going to witness to his family here, and watch what compromise gets him, Vs. 14 -“So Lot went out and spoke to his sons- in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said: ‘Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!’ But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.”
Notice at the end of this verse that Lot has compromised his witness to his family and they ain’t even taking him seriously!
Notice also how he’s completely compromised his witness to the unbelieving community, the Sodomites. I mean, these guys are like - ‘Dude, who do you think you are trying to be the judge here?!!’
Listen to this! So often we think: ‘I need to compromise my values. I need to compromise my convictions. I have to TONE DOWN the Word of God because I don’t want to seem judgmental or turn people off.’ It happens so often, You think your compromising to be a better witness when in reality you are just destroying it!
Lot has compromised and he is anything but a successful witness. His own family literally thinks he’s a joke!
Lot is an example of a man with a saved soul. Remember, we talked about this before? 2 Peter 2 calls him “Righteous Lot,” but he has a wasted life. Lot is going to come out of this situation having lost absolutely everything!
Picking it up in Vs. 15-22 I want you to notice the hesitancy, how hard it is going to be to uproot this guy, how attached he is to this wickedness, and how compromise is just going to pour forth from his darkened heart.
Vs. 15 - “With the coming of dawn...” (let me stop here and make sure we understand something. “When morning dawned” So this crazy stuff that just went down the night before - that was just Sodom! This is just Gomorrah! This is just part of that culture! When they woke up in the morning and everything was just calm and peaceful, this place is going to get wiped off the map! And this is exactly like Christ said is was going to happen in the last days! “With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.’”
When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.
As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, ‘Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away.’
But Lot said to them, ‘No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it - it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.’
He said to him, ‘Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not over-throw the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.’ (That is why the town was called Zoar).
Look back on Vs. 16 where “He hesitated.” And look at his prayer in vs. 18-20. He was whimpering and whining. You’d think he’d be shouting Hallelujah! I’ve been saved! Instead, he wants to go to a nearby small city.
Remember where we were just a couple weeks ago, and the Bible is doing this contrasting between Abraham and Lot. Notice Abraham’s prayer the last time? What was he doing? He was negotiating with God to save the city. Abraham was interceding for others. He is the man of faith! And what is this man of flesh doing? He’s interceding for himself!
Lot is one of those luke-warm, middle-ground misery cases who have never experienced peace. And just like so many believers, the reason they never experienced peace is because they have a wasted life. Lot had too much of the Lord in him to be happy in the world and too much of the world in him to be at peace with the Lord.
J.D. Edwards said: “A Christian who is walking in sin is very much like a butterfly still crawling on the branch of a tree because it thinks its still a caterpillar.”
All of this because of compromise. I want to urge you that if any of you are in this middle ground where there’s just this misery and lack of peace, PLEASE get with your Pastor or another strong believer and allow them to come in and enter into prayer with you and get through that. You DON’T want to stay there!
There is yet, despite all this, an undercut of comfort here that I don’t want you to miss! Remember, Lot was rescued once. Now he’s back in the saddle of sin again. If God keeps making provision for this wayward son, how much more is He going to make provision for those who DESIRE to please Him!?
Join us next week when we will witness the devastating judgment on these two cities.
Blessings to you all.
Last Update: Aug 16, 2020 1:21 pm CDT
